Choose several shades of brown clay. You don't have to buy them all, you can just mix them with white or black and with each other. Or even mix contrary colours (like green and orange).

Roll them into logs of different thicknesses. Make sure, you have several of one colour.

Assemble them randomly into a big log. It shouldn't be a regular pattern but also make sure that the same colours are not next to each other.

Roll the log between your hands and your work surface to make it longer.

Fold it in half and roll it again.

Repeat until the lines of colours have become thinner and more wood like. But don't mix it it too much.

Roll it out with your rolling pin or through your pasta machine.
If you like it that way you can stop here or fold it in half and roll out again until you like it. Make sure that you always fold it in a way that the lines are on top of each other to retain the pattern.

Here my clay sheet is finished, I had rolled it through my pasta machine twice.

To use your new faux wood sheet you can make beads for example. With a small cookie cutter (doesn't have to be round) cut out circles.
Fold those and roll them into balls between your hands, carefully pressing them a bit while rolling, so that they become evenly round.

Pierce through them with a needle tool (or needle). Make sure you do this from both sides to create an even hole. If you haven't done this before, you can practice with scrap clay.
Depending on how you want to use your beads later, you can enlarge the hole with a toothpick (or bigger needle tool). I recommend using a thinner one first, so the clay doesn't crack, when you push it through. you can always enlarge it afterwards. I also bake them on toothpicks so they don't roll around.
You can add some more texture with a wire brush or needle tool if you like. Make sure you do this along the lines you have already in there.

I also made a pendant with a larger cookie cutter.
For that cut out two circles from your wood sheet. You can put some scrap clay inbetween them to make it thicker or just stack them without it. To be able to hang it, add one or two jump rings in between the layers. Blend the seams with your tools or fingers.
If you have some small stamps you can stamp into the clay to add some interest. Then texture it with a wire brush or needle tool along the lines.

Bake everything according to the instructions on your clay package.

To make your pieces look aged and even more wooden, you can cover them with diluted black paint and then remove the excess with nail polish remover. I bought some nail polish remover pads. With those it is really easy to do.

And here is the result. It looks a bit grungy and weathered and really organic.

Tutorial Faux Wood

A tutorial on how to use these beads and pendant will follow soon. Do you like this tutorials? Leave me a comment below if you want to :)